For those not already aware of it, Four Yorkshiremen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo>It's a classic :)
On 2 October 2010 20:12, Russel Winder <rus...@russel.org.uk> wrote: > On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 18:41 +0100, Kevin Wright wrote: > > C64? Wow, advanced! > > I remember working with the Vic-20 and even the Commodore PET, back at > > school. > > I think we had better stop this variant on the Monty Python Yorkshireman > sketch somewhere around here. > > I remember at school that our computer was an IBM 704 located some 25 > miles away and that we sent in punch card decks which were returned 2 > days later -- if we were lucky. The programming language was, of > course, Fortran. Oh and assembly language which at least was a step up > from machine code. > > Fortran 2008 is a surprisingly interesting language. The standards > cycle for Fortran is about 5 years (which puts Java to shame ;-) and > there are guarantees of being able to compile correctly nigh on all > previous versions of Fortran. This is a non-trivial problem but also > essential to the running of the world. A large number of significant > codes still have Fortran 4 code from many, many moons ago. > > > Basic was largely unavoidable at the time, but by the time I'd worked > > my way up to the C46 (and even the C128) I'd also gotten around to > > typing in my own C-compiler (from the back of a magazine, I kid you > > not! Parental help was required and I'll spare you stories of > > typing-error problems...) which had to be painstakingly loaded from > > tape every time I started the computer. > > Ahh, the days of editing programs by sending in a sequence stream > editing commands on a paper tape to the operators. The joys, the pain. > > (I told you we should stop this variant on the Yorkshireman sketch, else > we will descend to reminiscences of entering programs by toggling > switches -- which I had to do regularly even on a PDP11 and various Data > General, Prime and Interdata machines :-( > > > Even then, boilerplate was annoying, perhaps the lack of *any* > > sensible text-editing features was a driving force here. I'd started > > working with LOGO (still at primary school here) > > > > Later, around age 11-12 I was upgrading schools - and also upgrading > > languages. Scheme had already been established for a few years, C++ > > was fairly well known and Common Lisp was no longer wet behind the > > ears. I played with them all. > > Forgive me, but so what? > > > Java came later, I was studying Elec.Eng, but friends studying > > Comp.Sci. still came to me for help. As this often involved offers of > > free beer I rarely turned down such a request, so found myself > > learning the language that was then being popularly taught. > > Aha, the bragging ;-) > > > After Uni, I was working as a programmer, using Pascal. Horrible > > language, I try my hardest to forget about it. Then a career in Java, > > working my way up the seniority ladder and doing some architecture > > work. > > > > > > Then most recently, the next big thing was Scala. I finally got back > > the beloved functions that had been missing from my professional life > > and are fondly remembered from as far back as primary school. Having > > already been won over to the benefits of the JVM, garbage collection, > > etc. this seemed like a perfect match. > > > > > > Clojure arrived after that. But, hey, I like static typing :) > > I also study Haskell, but purely for my own amusement. > > Every programmer should study all the languages mentioned, and many > others including Go, D, Erlang, Prolog. No matter which language you > use day-to-day your programming is improved by knowing at a "can work in > this language" level many different language with different > computational models. > > -- > Russel. > > ============================================================================= > Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: > sip:russel.win...@ekiga.net <sip%3arussel.win...@ekiga.net> > 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: rus...@russel.org.uk > London SW11 1EN, UK w: www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder > -- Kevin Wright mail / gtalk / msn : kev.lee.wri...@gmail.com pulse / skype: kev.lee.wright twitter: @thecoda -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
